


Welcome Home, Billy

by flippyspoon



Series: Pour Some Sugar on Me [49]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, FLANGST!, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2019-07-02
Packaged: 2020-06-02 11:51:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19440898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flippyspoon/pseuds/flippyspoon
Summary: Billy comes home after beating the monster.





	Welcome Home, Billy

Billy had not been outside in six weeks and now he squinted into the sunlight and had to lean there on the front door of Hawkins General for a minute because he was blinded.

“You alright?” Max said, holding his arm like he might fall over any second.

He wasn’t used to Max giving a shit. It was weird. Maybe not terrible but also kind of annoying.

“Yeah…” He rubbed his eyes and squinted, bit by bit getting used to the sunlight.

He had forgotten how good that felt on a person’s body.

“Steve’s here,” Max muttered.

“Huh?” His voice sounded too loud to him. He blinked and blinked and there was Steve in his goofy Scoops uniform, standing on the front steps of the hospital, his BMW parked on the street.

“I thought I’d drive you home,” Steve said.

“Is _he_ gone?” Billy muttered, now able to squint at Steve though the sun was behind him so Steve looked dark. He wanted to see him properly; Steve out in the sun, away from those harsh, bullshit hospital lights.

Billy had seen a lot of Steve lately.

“Yeah,” Max said. “He’s gone.”

Billy had been a monster.

A lot of things had happened and changed.

But now all that was over or…sort of over. Anyway, there wasn’t anything to do now but live. Whatever that looked like.

He was glad Steve was there anyway.

He was better…mostly. But he was still horribly weak. He hated that. They both had to help him down the steps and it was humiliating but at least nobody else was around. In the car, Billy heaved a sigh and reflexively reached up to run his hand through his hair but of course it was all shaved off. They’d had to shave his head.

Fuckwads.

Steve kept looking at him in the car. Steve had visited Billy constantly in the hospital. Most of the time, he just sat there and sometimes he read from a magazine or played music or the radio on a tape deck for Billy’s benefit. Not that Billy had been much of a conversationalist. Most of the time he’d been barfing or shaking and sweating or worse.

“You look good,” Steve declared as they pulled up in front of the Mayfield House (formerly the Hargrove House).

Billy thought he looked like hammering shit but he was too startled by Steve Harrington telling he looked good and he sat with it as Max and Steve got out and came around to help him out, and found himself smiling.

“Uh…the kids kinda…” Steve laughed to himself as he let Billy into his house. There was a paper banner hanging from ceiling in the living room that said: WELCOME HOME, BILLY.

Billy stood there, heavily leaning on Steve, and stared at it.

“They wanted to throw a party,” Steve said. “But I thought that might make you want to gouge your own eyes out-”

“It would have.”

“But they got you cake.”

Billy gawked at Steve. “They got me a cake.”

“I mean you did save the entire town so-”

“Oh.”

Max snorted a laugh. “Are you still on drugs?”  
“I wish,” Billy muttered. “Jesus, I’m already…” He felt weakness in his bones, making him falter a little and Steve cast him a concerned look and wrapped his arm around Billy’s waist.

“Let’s get you to your room,” Steve said.

“My mom will be back later,” Max said, following them as Steve helped Billy down the hall. “Um, she kind of…did some stuff to your room?”

“ _What_?”

He did not like the sound of that at all. He didn’t like people touching his shit that was for damn sure yet when he pushed open the door to his room his breath caught.

Susan had been busy alright.

Billy’s room had been rather austere before but now…

His vanity made of crates was gone, though the crates and boxes were now neatly stacked in the closet. In its place was a real vanity with all his hairsprays and combs and brushes neatly placed. Even his ashtray had been scrubbed out.

There was a framed Metallica poster on the wall.

It was framed.

There was a new crate full of brand new unopened records next to his stereo. There was a stack of shiny cassettes next to his tape deck.

There was new bedding on his bed; one of those big fluffy comforters that always looked expensive and luxurious. There were new curtains on the windows and books on the shelves.

Billy had a lump in his throat and he coughed to cover it. “Susan did this?”

“She felt bad,” Max said quietly. “About the stuff your dad did…”

There had been a lot of ugly shit that had happened before and while Billy was a monster…

Billy cleared his throat and said, “It’s not bad. Um…I’ll thank her later. I guess.”

“Thinks he’s kinda overwhelmed, Max,” Steve said. “Maybe we’ll just let him chill a minute-”

“Not overwhelmed,” Billy grumbled.

Max only rolled her eyes but she was smiling as she left and Billy plopped down on what was definitely a new and comfier bed, he sat sideways, leaning up against the wall and sighed, gazing up at Steve.

Steve shifted from foot to foot and said, “I’ll just uh…”

“Stick around a while,” Billy said softly. “If you want…”

“Uh…yeah.” He shrugged, and sat down next to Billy, seeming overly stiff and a little bit nervous. “You look good, ya know?”

“You said that already,” Billy said, grinning at him. “You alright, Harrington?”

Steve chuckled at that and he leaned back. He was sitting close to Billy. “Yeah, no yeah. I’m good. I meant… What I mean is, you look different.” He was leaning back against the wall and now he turned his head and absently gestured with his hand and then left it lying there in Billy lap and Billy felt it in his blood like Steve’s hand was burning hot. “It’s like…you got a new skin or something. Since you got better. It’s a good skin.” He grinned and seemed to laugh at himself.

“Huh…” Billy looked away, had no idea what to say to that. “Alright.”

“I missed you, ya know,” Steve said in such a garbled mumble that Billy almost missed it.

“You missed me?” Billy said, his ears perking up.

“When you were in the hospital…” Steve shrugged and played with a fraying thread in the seam of his jeans. “Worried about you like… I mean it was cool hanging out with you over the summer before all the…” He sighed. “Monster shit. And then…I really thought you were a goner, dude. Thought you were dead. ‘Stead you ended up…”

“Whatever…” But Billy’s cheeks were aflame, his heart felt uncomfortably big.

“Can I touch you?” Steve said, his voice quaking. And Billy stared at him with his icy, blue eyes.

All he could manage to say was, “Free country.”

Steve smiles and turned toward him and reached up to touch Billy’s forehead with the tip of his finger, following the slope of his nose to the curve of his lips where he stopped and stared at what he had done. “New skin,” Steve murmured. Then he looked at Billy frightened eyes. “Why are you crying?”

“Mm…shit…” He had not know he was crying but Steve ignored it and lurched forward to kiss his salty lips and Billy shook in his arms. “Oh…”

“Welcome home, Billy,” Steve whispered in his ear.


End file.
